I found a wonderful new word today, Anomia, not being able to think of a particular word. That’s the problem I have when I don’t get enough sleep, baby K can’t talk yet, but she’d probably say the same thing. Elisheva‘s blog is good for learning new words.
We spent the Saturday morning cleaning house, B himself cranked through 5 loads of laundry and got most of it put away, with (or in spite of) M’s help. I coached him on how to graciously lead a 5 year old. I figure management is a different, more frustrating but useful skill other than doing the work alone.
I’d been thinking the Spring rain was a good thing, as that afternoon the boys and DH were going to see Prince Caspian with my Mom and Cousin K and her husband B (We call him Cousin too), but just as I waved goodbye to the mini-van, a glorious blue sky rolled out from under the clouds. We were relieved to read The Thinking Mother’s Prince Caspian Movie Review
because we’d heard that the movie was too scary for young children, but we’d already promised M he could go, so we were stuck. My guys’ report of the movie was very much like The Thinking Mother’s. But as B is a detail /discussion nut at the moment (I think he’s passing from the Poll Parrot stage to the Pert stage) it was good to warn him how the movie would be different from the book.
I was very proud of myself to have walnut orange biscoti (from this outstanding cookbook) ready with coffee when the family returned, and to have pizza dough rising. Baby K and I got in a nap too! We walked over to the new playground, passed a cricket game, and stayed out in the sunshine until half an hour after our usual dinner time.
Cousin B could explain the game to us, he learned to play it in grad school from some Indian co-workers. K said it was the same rules as a Brazilian street game, but she’d never played it as a girl in San Paulo, because it was culturally inappropriate for girls to play that particular game. In Brazil, Tako (I’m not sure I’m spelling that correctly) doesn’t have the same upper class associations as Cricket.
My husband and Cousin B did some physics experiments on the new play ground equipment.
M hung around
K and B’s neighbor has been toothing for strawberry rhubarb pie, so they harvested some of my rhubarb to surprise him with.
Baby K had her first swing experience with Grandma.
I got to play too.
I think B was climbing the "rock climbing" wall, we never got a snap of him :-( (reading over my shoulder, he informed me that he was practicing jumping off moving swings most of the time. I should have tried for some airborne snaps)
When we got back from the park, I had to use some of my own advise for B about supervising, we were all hungry, and everyone wanted to help make supper, including M. I usually keep pizza simple, just cheese, but my mom brought pepperoni, jarred roast red pepper, and I had a can of black olives. Cousin B sliced some green onions for the salad and pizza. Mom harvested a lot of leaf lettuce from her garden. I’d brought M with me to the grocery store that morning, and he’d talked me into making our favorite soda: orange juice concentrate diluted with selter water. Grape juice concentrate works wonderfully too.
As usual, the pizza set off the fire alarms, but the extra cornmeal "ball bearings" caught fire under my pizza stone. I put it out by tossing handfuls of baking soda onto the heating elements. Every dinner should be so exciting? My old lab manager would roll his eyes at me for carelessness. Oh well. I did sweep out the oven yesterday, it was cool by then.
K and B had to leave soon after dishes, their dashound was waiting in their condo in his crate.
What a lovely day!